This Mournable Body; Coming of Age in the face of Racism and Sexism

 

In This Mournable Body, Dangarembgaan essential member of society who has the “courage to say the truth about the way things are” while also illuminating the truth that things do not “have to be this way”.  We can’t wait to read a novel that has pushed boundaries and tells untold stories.

Tsitsi Dangarembga and Sara Collins: This Mournable Body 

This Mournable Body is a novel that follows a girl named Tambudzai who is living in a youth hostel. She eventually takes an ecotourism job that leads her back home. Gray Wolf Press declares “This homecoming, in Dangarembga’s tense and psychologically charged novel, culminates in an act of betrayal, revealing just how toxic the combination of colonialism and capitalism can be.” This novel pushes boundaries and shares a story that has not been told before, about people who are marginalized in today’s society. The best interview that I found with the author was posted on YouTube by the London Review Bookshop. The name of the video is Tsitsi Dangarembga and Sara Collins: This Mournable Body. The video discusses the general plot of the book and goes into depth about the author’s achievements and overall character. The interviewer Sara Collins describes Dangarembga as an essential member of society who has the “courage to say the truth about the way things are” while also illuminating the truth that things do not “have to be this way”.  Tsitsi Dangarembga indicates that in the opening of the novel, when Tambudzai is staring into the mirror, she sees a “hideous monster she doesn’t want anything to do with”. Dangarembga shares that this is because of all the racism and sexism that Tambudzai has internalized. Not only does this novel seem fascinating, but it also relates to my threshold guardian topic. Reading stories like this, about a life I am so far removed from, can help me become a more empathetic person as a reader. Just a few days after the Booker Prize longlist came out, Dangarembga was arrested during a peaceful protest in her home country of Zimbabwe. An NPR’s article on Dangarembga and her novel titled ‘This Mournable Body’: A Novel About Life In Independent Zimbabwe discusses the author’s political activism and arrest. Both the video and print sources shed light on Dangarembga’s commitment to providing a voice for the voiceless.